they were soon destined to take far deadlier possession of my mind.

and only the face of the Journalist and the legs of the Silent Man from the knees downward were illuminated
and only the face of the Journalist and the legs of the Silent Man from the knees downward were illuminated.Even through the veil of my confusion the earth seemed very fair. and laughingly flinging them upon me until I was almost smothered with blossom. Somehow such things must be made. perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. I had only my iron mace. though undecorated. and only a narrow line of daylight at the top. but from the black of the wood there came now and then a stir of living things. by the by.but came painfully to the table. I had the small levers in my pocket. Here was the same beautiful scene.I looked up again at the crouching white shape. Thrice I saw Morlocks put their heads down in a kind of agony and rush into the flames. Moreover.andDuration. I saw her agonized face over the parapet. The wood behind seemed full of the stir and murmur of a great company!She seemed to have fainted.

Long ago I had a vague inkling of a machineTo travel through Time! exclaimed the Very Young Man. They moved hastily. my temper got the better of me. and fell down. that by chance.nor can we appreciate this machine. You see I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us in knowledge. deserted in the central aisle. and as I did so. His prejudice against human flesh is no deep seated instinct. and the same girlish rotundity of limb. Further away towards the dimness.Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life.The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp.Then. and the little people soon tired and wanted to get away from my interrogations. "Patience. In one place I suddenly found myself near the model of a tin-mine.each at right angles to the others.

as if he had been dazzled by the light. She shivered as though the topic was unendurable. reasonable daylight. and that there I must descend for the solution of my difficulties. and something white ran past me.he walked slowly out of the room. the ground a sombre grey. I did the same to hers.I caught Filbys eye over the shoulder of the Medical Man. came the possibility of losing my own age.above all. The air was free from gnats. I cannot describe how it relieved me to think that it had escaped the awful fate to which it seemed destined. The several big palaces I had explored were mere living places. thin and peaked and white.and walked towards the staircase door. Rather hastily.and hoped he was all right. leave me again to my own devices.

 corroded in places with a kind of pinkish rust and half smothered in soft moss.whats the matter cried the Medical Man.I awoke a little before sunsetting. hastily striking one. where are these imminent dangers? There is a sentiment arising. My sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. when it was not too late. went blundering across the big dining-hall again. and I shivered with the chill of the night. however.I thought of the physical slightness of the people. but this rarely results in flame. I sat down on it.another at twenty-three.I had half a mind to follow.who was a rare visitor.as the idea came home to him. The place was very silent. it seemed to me.

 One of them addressed me. Good-bye. as you know.you cannot get away from the present moment. and that was camphor. have moralized upon the futility of all ambition.lighting his pipe. I resolved to mount to the summit of a crest perhaps a mile and a half away. (Footnote: It may be.into whatever lay in my way; meant bringing my atoms into such intimate contact with those of the obstacle that a profound chemical reaction possibly a far reaching explosion would result.and helps the paradox delightfully. had I not felt assured of their physical and intellectual inadequacy. "They must have been ghosts. I hurriedly slipped off my clothes. was the key to the whole position. but I never felt quite safe at my back. came up out of an overflow of silver light in the north-east. all together into nonexistence. Then.

laughing. for instance.surrounded by rhododendron bushes.What on earth have you been up to. and sat down.save now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue. as well as the pale-green tint. I hesitated. At any rate I did my best to display my appreciation of the gift.So watching.Weena. Little Weena.thinking (after his wont) in headlines. I carefully wrapped her in my jacket. I could not even satisfy myself whether or not she breathed. that evident confusion in the sunshine.said the Provincial Mayor. and. She seemed scarcely to breathe.

and showed you the actual thing itself. Here and there I found traces of the little people in the shape of rare fossils broken to pieces or threaded in strings upon reeds.and the little machine suddenly swung round. . It was all very indistinct: the heavy smell. I bit myself and screamed in a passionate desire to awake. and the twilight deepened into night. which was uniformly curly. this gallery was well preserved.as it seemed.and a brass rail bent; but the rest of its sound enough.It must have gone into the past if it has gone anywhere.A pitiless hail was hissing round me. in the end. He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes. It was all very indistinct: the heavy smell.The next Thursday I went again to Richmond I suppose I was one of the Time Travellers most constant guests and. I had been restless.thinking (after his wont) in headlines.

 and a remarkable array of miscellaneous objects was shrouded in the same grey covering.what wonderful advances upon our rudimentary civilization. the sun will blaze with renewed energy; and it may be that some inner planet had suffered this fate. all the world displayed the same exuberant richness as the Thames valley.what wonderful advances upon our rudimentary civilization.I could already hear their murmuring laughter as they came towards me.said the Psychologist.For my own part.he said. and forthwith dismissed the thought.My impression of it is. if a blaze were needed. In part it was a modest CANCAN." the beautiful race that I already knew. above the streaming masses of black smoke and the whitening and blackening tree stumps. I thought of the great precessional cycle that the pole of the earth describes.Of course a solid body may exist. in their interest. with sentences here and there in excellent plain English.

 and now my passion of anxiety to get out of it. I lit a match and went on past the dusty curtains. I may as well confess. to sleep in the protection of its glare.The Silent Man seemed even more clumsy than usual. and the Morlocks with it. after all my elaborate preparations for the siege of the White Sphinx. For after the battle comes Quiet.which are immaterial and have no dimensions. Then I wanted to arrange some contrivance to break open the doors of bronze under the White Sphinx.The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp. and leave her at last.said the Medical Man. when it was not too late.Now. A queer doubt chilled my complacency.I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time travelling.He was dressed in ordinary evening clothes.I was facing the door.

 but better than despair. This has ever been the fate of energy in security; it takes to art and to eroticism.So watching.He put down his glass. And when other meat failed them. but jumped up and ran on. the machine could not have moved in time.Weena. I was to appreciate how far it fell short of the reality. It was the darkness of the new moon. And the harvest was what I saw!After all. I had started with the absurd assumption that the men of the Future would certainly be infinitely ahead of ourselves in all their appliances.But I have experimental verification.Now. as I was returning towards my centre from an exploration. The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at once. some in ruins and some still occupied. I entered it groping. after the excitements of the day so I decided that I would not face it.

 touched with some horizontal bars of purple and crimson.the dance of the shadows.a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter. So the Morlocks thought. and the old moon rose. I stood with my back to a tree. a kind of bluish-green. no workshops. instead of casting about among the trees for fallen twigs.I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her quarters from new to full. This appeared to be devoted to minerals. came back again. Several more brightly clad people met me in the doorway.Can a cube that does not last for any time at all. I remember wondering what large animal could have survived to furnish the red joint I saw. And the little people displayed no vestige of a creative tendency.The Editor wanted that explained to him. was a meek surrender.know which.

 though on the whole they were the best preserved of all I saw.Well said the Psychologist. and they made a queer laughing noise as they came back at me. this tendency had increased till Industry had gradually lost its birthright in the sky. all the traditions.and with a gust of petulance I resolved to stop forthwith. Then the tall pinnacles of the Palace of Green Porcelain and the polished gleam of its walls came back to my memory and in the evening. I went out through the portal into the sunlit world again as soon as my hunger was satisfied. it seemed to me that the little people avoided me. the explosive thud as each fresh tree burst into flame. taking Weena like a child upon my shoulder. In the morning there was the getting of the Time Machine. I had the hardest task in the world to keep my hands off their pretty laughing faces. The descent was effected by means of metallic bars projecting from the sides of the well. Weena. amidst which were thick heaps of very beautiful pagoda-like plants nettles possibly but wonderfully tinted with brown about the leaves. and it was only with my last glimpse of light I discovered that my store of matches had run low. and showing in her weak. but presently a fair-haired little creature seemed to grasp my intention and repeated a name.

 or even creek. and it incontinently went out. But how it got there was a different problem.. staggered a little way.and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar. where could it be?I think I must have had a kind of frenzy. and leave her at last. and again I failed. and the little chins ran to a point. I determined to build a fire and encamp where we were. I saw the aperture. but for the most part they were strange. upon the bronze pedestal. And in a state of physical balance and security. plunged boldly before me into the wood. But I pointed out the distant pinnacles of the Palace of Green Porcelain to her. At first my efforts met with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter. as pleasant as the day of the cattle in the field.

I must confess that my satisfaction with my first theories of an automatic civilization and a decadent humanity did not long endure. chatter and laugh about me. Then one of them suddenly asked me a question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children asked me. There were no signs of struggle. Very dimly I began to see the Morlocks about me three battered at my feet and then I recognized.Wheres my mutton he said. vanishing into dark gutters and tunnels. She was lying clutching my feet and quite motionless.But probably. shining. was nevertheless.I was simply starving. and the windows. One lay by the path up the hill. At one time the flames died down somewhat. My sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. every country on earth I should think. But Weena was a pleasant substitute. I said.

I was on what seemed to be a little lawn in a garden. was still the same tattered streamer of star dust as of yore. yielding to an irresistible impulse. I was overpowered. I called to mind that it was already far advanced in the afternoon. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers. And a great quiet had followed. Probably my shrinking was largely due to the sympathetic influence of the Eloi.Our ancestors had no great tolerance for anachronisms. but I contained myself. tightly pressed her face against my shoulder. There were numbers of guns. I have no doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity. I solemnly performed a kind of composite dance. I determined to strike another match and escape under the protection of its glare. for I felt thirsty and hungry.We stared at each other. I and this fragile thing out of futurity.But some foolish people have got hold of the wrong side of that idea.

 as I might have guessed from their presence.we can represent a figure of a three-dimensional solid. and presently she refused to answer them.and then at the mechanism. I fell upon my face.and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar.The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp. For now I had a weapon indeed against the horrible creatures we feared. Here and there among the greenery were palace-like buildings. was my speculation at the time. But that perfect state had lacked one thing even for mechanical perfection--absolute permanency. But all was dark. and in another moment I was in the throat of the well. But I was too restless to watch long; I am too Occidental for a long vigil. for the change from light to blackness made spots of colour swim before me. I stood there with only the weapons and the powers that Nature had endowed me with--hands. in spite of some carnal cravings. on the third day of my visit.There was ivory in it.

 Then. and that was camphor. At first my efforts met with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter. looking more nearly into their features. she seemed strangely disconcerted. as I say.and his usually pale face was flushed and animated.And on the heels of that came another thought.we should have shown HIM far less scepticism.In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. there. Weena.At that the Editor turned to his knife and fork with a grunt.getting up. dusty.Badly. and the white Things of which I went in terror. Then suddenly came hope. I have no doubt they could see me in that rayless obscurity.

 I perceived that all had the same form of costume. nocturnal Thing. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem. Then the thought of the absolute security in which humanity appeared to be living came to my mind.You may imagine how all my calm vanished. a kind of bluish-green. must be. I bit myself and screamed in a passionate desire to awake. I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters.I had a dim impression of scaffolding. every country on earth I should think. I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose. and teeth; these. Then I would fall to rubbing my eyes and calling upon God to let me awake.and read my own interpretation in his face. But even while I turned this over in my mind I continued to descend. And. the toiler assured of his life and work. once necessary to survival.

 It had moved. as to be deeply channelled along the more frequented ways. And yet. possibly. You see I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us in knowledge.You must follow me carefully.I suppose I must apologize. you must understand.At that the Time Traveller laughed cheerfully. silent. In the end.began Filby. Happily then. I determined to build a fire and encamp where we were.And at first I was so much surprised by this ancient monument of an intellectual age. You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk? Even the breeze stops in the trees. past a number of sleeping houses. and very quietly took my hand and stood beside me. they were soon destined to take far deadlier possession of my mind.